Ukraine is one of the leading countries in the Central and Eastern European region by the volume of IT outsourcing services provision market, and more than 1, 000 outsourcing companies are operating all over Ukraine.

Nevertheless, in terms of the number of outsourcing companies and number of IT specialists involved in IT outsourcing, we can separate six main outsourcing centers in Ukraine: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Crimea cluster (includes cities Kherson, Mykolaiv, Simferopol, and Sevastopol).

We continue our series of posts about the main outsourcing and software development centers in Ukraine, and today’s post is devoted to Kyiv region.

Kyiv Region

Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country. The permanent population of the city is almost 3 million people. Being home to many hi-tech industries, higher education institutions and world-famous historical landmarks, Kyiv is one of the important educational, scientific, industrial, and cultural center of Eastern Europe.

Kyiv region is the largest outsourcing and software development center in Ukraine. Great number of outsourcing companies operates here and 40% of all ITO resources in Ukraine are centered here. There is the largest in Ukraine IT talent pool in Kyiv. Currently more than 10,000 highly qualified IT specialists are involved in IT outsourcing sector. The city has 68 universities that allow preparing skilled IT personnel for the market of IT outsourcing service provision. Moreover, four top-rated technical universities are located in Kyiv (NTUU “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, and National Aviation University).

As a capital city, Kyiv attracts specialists from all over Ukraine as a place for relocation with much more opportunities.

Together with the largest IT talent pool, Kyiv is the most expensive region both in terms of salaries and cost of living comparatively to other outsourcing centers in Ukraine. But it is still cheaper than many other outsourcing destinations in Central and Eastern European countries.

Kyiv is the large region with high level of economic development offering great opportunities and favorable conditions for conducting business. It is also convenient for business due to the rich choice of:

office premises

Internet providers

finance and legal institutions

good hotels

availability of all types of business services

The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport.

Being the main R&D destination in Ukraine, Kyiv has a favorable geographical location and two modern airports linking it to the rest of the world, and convenient airline connections. Boryspil International Airport receives most of the international flights. The various airlines operating here – Adria Airways, Air France, Air Baltic, AlItalia, British Airways, Bulgaria Air, Czech Airlines, El Al, Finnair, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System, Wizz Air, Austrian Airlines, Aerosvit Airlines, Aeroflot, Lufthansa, Ukraine International Airlines and many others. Among other airports which serve Kiev is Zhulyany Airport operating mainly in domestic capacity. IT takes at average 3 hours to fly from any destination in Europe to Kyiv and 8 hours to fly from New York to Kyiv.

The city is hosting the European Football Championship. The airports and hotels have been modernized, and many improvements to the infrastructure have been done with the EURO-2012 tournament approaching.

Kyiv region is one of most promising and well-developed regions in Ukraine. In 2009 it was ranked among TOP 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Destinations by Global Services and Tholons based on the analysis of the following categories: Scale and Quality of Workforce, Business Catalyst, Cost, Infrastructure, Risk Profile, Quality of Life.

The majority of foreigners who visit Kyiv say that it is a nice European city with friendly people, warm atmosphere and lots of business opportunities.